The present invention generally relates to apparatus and methods of seeding and, in the preferred form, of seeding grass and, in the most preferred form, to apparatus and methods of seeding existing turf.
It is often desired that turf be overseeded. Specifically, due to winter kill and other environmental conditions, turf will include patches which are devoid of grass, will have insufficient plant populations per area, or is otherwise insufficient. Likewise, it may be desired to introduce grasses of different varieties into existing turfs by interseeding existing turfs, with such different varieties having desired characteristics such as disease or other environmental condition resistance different than the existing turf and often becoming available after the existing turf was initially established. However, it is desired to maintain the existing turf rather than start new, if possible. If the grass seed were simply spread unto undisturbed turf, the grass seed would often be suspended in the existing turf and, thus, will not germinate or will not grow if germinated. Likewise, if the grass seed does reach the actual soil, the percentage of seed that germinates and grows into the soil is not of a desirable level. Conventional seeders often increased the amount of seed to compensate for these and similar factors, but increasing the amount of seed increases the costs of seeding. On the other hand, disturbing the turf increases the chance of successful germination and growth, but often resulted in killing or otherwise damaging the existing turf. Such damage is, of course, not desired for appearance reasons such as in existing lawns adjacent residences, for functional reasons such as at golf courses where the reseeded areas may still be utilized at least for limited applications, or the like.
Thus, a need exists for apparatus and methods for seeding turf and having particular applicability for overseeding areas of existing turf while overcoming the deficiencies encountered by conventional attempts to overseed existing turf. Furthermore, in most preferred aspects, such apparatus should be designed with serviceability in mind for ease of operation, maintenance, and repair by the operator.